A WOW Moment with VIcki, Iesha and Louise (Date: December 17th 2020)

Whitten Baptist Church

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Time, time? Time? Well, it's 631. It is. 32. All right. I'm going to give folks a few minutes.

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Usually it's going to take about a second or two. Are we live right now? Yes, ma 'am. Okay. Oh, you're on there.

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Is that my phone? Yes. What does that mean, that black thing? That's just my phone telling you that we just went live.

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Okay. Wittenbevis Church is now live. All right.

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Good evening, everyone, and welcome to our Bible study. Do I need to say good evening, too?

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Okay. I was watching Aisha. She's had her hand over there. I saw three. We have four people.

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Sorry. I was seeing if anybody could. All righty. Oh, nobody's there. Welcome to our

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Bible study, everybody. Tonight, I have with me, I'm Vicki, as you all should know, and this is

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Miss Aisha Howard. She's sitting in with me tonight. Mercedes is taking a little break.

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She'll be back from time to time. She's not left, left, left. She's just taking a little sabbatical.

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But tonight, our guest is Miss Louise Maddox. We love

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Miss Louise here at Witten. She is one of the sweetest, honest, but honest, loving women

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I've met. You teach in Sunday school now, right? I teach,

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I assist teaching Sunday school. Yes. And the nursery. And our children's department. Yep, and the nursery.

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Because she's got a lot of kids. And bus. Oh, yeah, she works at the bus ministry. And the bus ministry.

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She does it all. She's very busy here, as most of us are very busy here. But Miss Louise, we want to thank you so much for coming tonight and studying with us.

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She has done an incredible job. She's made us some notes on what she's going to talk about, so we don't have to hop, skip, and jump around, which is really, really, really,

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I appreciate it. You didn't have to do that. But from what

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I understand, from what I've gathered, this is a verse that Miss Louise loves. Because I asked her,

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I said, is this a go -to verse, or is this just a verse that you want to discuss? And she said, oh, no, this is my verse.

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So tonight, y 'all, we're going to Miss Louise's verse. Because the

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Lord said, Louise, this is your verse. I believe it. I do, too. Now that you've explained to me,

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I'm with you. I'm with you. So, anyways, we've sat and chatted for about 15 or 20 minutes before we got on, as I usually do with our guests for the night.

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And Miss Louise, since we know this is your verse, what verse is that?

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Jeremiah 17 .8. Jeremiah 17 .8. If y 'all have your Bibles, you can get them out, because you can't look at it on your phone because you're looking at us.

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Aisha. Yes. Will you read the scripture, please? Sure. So Jeremiah 17 .8

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says, He will be like a tree planted by water. It sends its roots out towards a stream.

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It doesn't fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit.

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Miss Louise. Yes, ma 'am. I already know, but please share with us why this is your go -to verse.

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Well, number one, as a Christian, we need to be grounded in God and Jesus, and we need to have roots that are always seeking nourishment from God and Jesus and the

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Holy Spirit. So one of the ways to do that is through prayer, through staying in the

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Bible. And I just love this. There's a song that goes with this that is a tree planted by the water.

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It spreads its roots to the river. When the heat comes, doesn't have to worry about it because there's still water.

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And the leaves will always be green. That means we'll be always producing fruit no matter where we are or what circumstances we're in or what storms come.

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We are grounded. Our roots are grounded firmly in the ground, and we don't have to worry.

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God is our source of strength. He's our source of leadership.

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He is just our all in all. There is Psalms 1, 1 through 3 also has the same wording in it.

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Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, but his delight is in the law of the

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Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper.

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And there is a video. I mean, you can look on YouTube and ask for a song.

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The lyric starts, Just like a tree planted by the water. I did that, and it shows several videos singing this song.

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So I'll give the words to you. I'm not singing. I asked if you were going to sing.

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Should I look it up and have music in the background? That's all right.

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I'll give you the words. You can look it up and get the music later. It's just like a tree planted by the water.

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I shall not be moved. Though the winds are blowing all around me,

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I shall not be moved. These winds will never last. This storm is sure to pass.

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This trial is just a test. So I shall not be moved.

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I'm on my way to heaven. I shall not be moved. Just like a tree planted by the water,

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I shall not be moved. One of the things I did on a women's retreat with Crossway Church in the hills of Arkansas, in a nice campground with cabins, thank goodness.

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The leader told us that morning at breakfast time that our assignment that day was to find something in our walk that day out in nature that reminded us of God, the

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Bible, Jesus, or a favorite Bible verse. So I'm walking along, and I'm walking by this really pretty stream of water that wasn't very deep, but it was clear water, which

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Arkansas has beautiful water over there. I found a rock that reminded me of a tree.

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It had a shape of the large part where the limbs would be.

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Then it had a trunk, and it wasn't a very big tree. And I thought, that's it, a tree planted by the water.

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It was right there by the water. And I thought, okay, I'm going to take this back and use that scripture as my go -to verse.

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But I love it. Another thing I want to talk about is hope changes everything.

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Faith changes everything. Look up Romans 8, 25, and 26.

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But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.

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Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the

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Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groaning which cannot be uttered.

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So the Holy Spirit intercedes with the believer as we talk to God, and he puts it in words that we could not utter it, but God receives it.

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In Romans 8, 28, it says,

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And we know that all things work together for good to those who love

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God and to those who are called according to his purpose. I have a story that Pastor Jeff gave us about two weeks ago.

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It was, we all have storms in our lives, but we must be strong and have faith and believe that God loves us and cares for us, and he's going to take care of the believers.

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Just like Paul was on a voyage in the Mediterranean Sea in Acts 27, 1 through 28,

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Paul knew that God wanted him to go to Rome, Italy. So he was arrested for his stand on Christianity and for preaching and spreading the gospel, and he was put on a ship near Jerusalem.

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Well, during that storm, during that trip, a big, big storm came up and drifted them off course, and they were very afraid.

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Everybody on the ship was extremely afraid, but Paul told them, Don't be afraid.

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In Acts 27, 22 through 26, it'll tell you one of the reasons

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Paul was not afraid. And now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship.

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For there stood by me this night an angel of the God to whom

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I belong and whom I serve, saying, Do not be afraid, Paul.

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You must be brought before Caesar. And indeed, God has granted you all those who sail with you.

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Therefore, take heart, men, for I believe God that it will be just as I told me, as it was told me.

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However, we must run aground on a certain island. All right, they were tossed around for 14 more days.

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Finally, as they neared an island, the ship broke up, but all 276 persons on the ship were saved and made it safely to the shore.

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Now, Paul again gets in trouble. But again, Paul has faith because he knows God has him on a mission.

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In Acts 28, 3 through 5, When Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, a viper, which is a very poisonous snake, came out because of the heat and fastened on his hand, but he shook it off into the fire, and he suffered no harm.

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Well, Paul, through God's help, was able to heal many people on the island of Malta, and many became believers in Jesus.

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Finally, when the ship arrived to take them going on to Rome, the islanders were so honored and thankful that they honored him by providing all the provisions and the food and stuff to carry them on their journey to Rome.

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That was a Wednesday night, wasn't it? Yep, Bible study from Jeff, our pastor.

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How do we get closer to God so that our tree is planted by the waters?

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Two big ways are prayer and obedience. God always wants the believer to be obedient.

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And we talk to God through prayer, and we listen. It's a conversation.

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We should always talk to God, give Him what we're asking for, praise

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Him. God gave us the most wonderful example of the prayer

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Jesus did of how we should pray to God. During Enos' time in the

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Bible, people started to call on the name of the Lord. That's the first time it's actually mentioned that they call on the name of the

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Lord. Adam and Eve, Adam walked with the Lord, and he had conversations with the

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Lord. But he didn't call on the Lord at that time because they were in the

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Garden of Eden, so they had conversations. But in Enos' time, they did call on the name of the

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Lord, which is considered a prayer. Adam and Eve had Seth, who was the father of Enos.

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Well, in Genesis 4 .26, the Bible says,

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And as for Seth to him also a son was born, and his name was

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Enos. Then men began to call on the name of the Lord. So we have an example from the very beginning of the

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Bible that we should have conversations with God. He wants to know. He already knows what we feel and what we need.

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But he wants us to put it in words. He wants us to talk to him and to listen to him.

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Well, as Abraham traveled from Ur to Cana, he called on the name of the

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Lord in Genesis 12 .8. And then in Moses, in Deuteronomy 4 .7,

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Moses said, Jabez called on the

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God of Israel in 1 Chronicles 4 .10. Elijah's great contest with Baal when he called on the

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Lord in 1 Kings 18 .24. If you remember the story,

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Elijah was given a contest to see if it was going to burst into fire.

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There was two sacrifices. Baal and all of their hundreds of prophets and wise men and seers, they were going to call on their gods to start a fire.

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And Elijah says, I will start a fire. God's going to start a fire with my sacrifice.

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Well, Baal, for almost a full daytime, they called on their god and,

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I mean, went wild calling on their gods. And it didn't happen. Elijah asked him to pour water and soak the wood, soak it so that it would not be easy to burn.

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And he called on the God and God set fire and completely did away with his sacrifice and also took care of Baal's prophets.

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So we need to call on God because He is our

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Savior. He helps us be planted so that we can get nourishment from Him, from the

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Bible, from each other's teachings and our fellowship at church.

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Well, your last person you have on your list there is David. Oh, David.

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He's the one that I am so familiar with. You know, me and David, we kind of...

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Alright, the last one was David. David called on the Lord a lot of times. One of the times he was being delivered from Saul, in 2

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Samuel 22, 4, I called on the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from the enemies.

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David knew that he had been, as a child, he was anointed to be king of Israel.

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And so all of his trials, and there were so many. Oh my goodness, there were so many trials.

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All the trials he had, he called on God. But he knew that God had a plan for him.

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And one way or the other, God was going to save him throughout all of these trials, and He did.

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He was not the most person. He wasn't the most good with choices.

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He made bad choices. He made a lot of bad choices. But he always asked for forgiveness and came back to the

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Lord. And he was just a good example of always praising

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God. And Psalms is mostly of his praying to God, or praising

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God, or asking God for help. Yeah, David and I really relate.

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Yeah, we all have stories. So we need to be like the tree planted by the waters, that no matter what winds come and blows our leaves and our tree limbs, we're going to stay firm in God's faith, especially during this election.

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I don't know if we're supposed to be talking about that, but I think during this election, have faith. We call it during these times.

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During these times, have faith. Because you have COVID also. So many times.

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There's a lot of stuff going on right now. And it really is, because it would be so...

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Without Christ, wouldn't it be just so easy just to go...

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Oh yeah, oh yeah. I cannot imagine in all the trials that I've had in my life, that if I didn't have

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God, I cannot imagine. Well, Miss Louisa, it just shows that your roots...

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You have those stubborn roots. I want them to dig up in your life.

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Oh my gosh, it keeps going and going. Like, really? And it's like this thick. Yeah, those stubborn roots.

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Yeah, but it's a good thing. Who knew that stubborn roots were a good thing? I was asked to...

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I took a journaling class to learn how to journal. And one of the things that they said was, draw a line.

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And everything that bad happened to you, put it below the line.

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And make a note of it, and put the time on it. And then everything that happened because of that bad that came out of that bad, put it above the line.

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And she said, you know, I am a Christian. But every time I have had a bad,

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I have had a good above the line. Right. The whole journey.

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You don't know why you're in this storm. You don't know what God's expecting. God has his own timing.

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Sometimes we like to give him some deadlines, but he misses them. But it's not for him to worry about what we...

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We think he misses them. It's God's will. That's what we want. And honestly, you know,

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I've had a lot of trials. I have been drug through the muck and the mud and the...

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Simply because of my own stubbornness and my own hard -headedness. Because I didn't want to...

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I didn't want to listen. I didn't want to be obedient. I didn't want to do what

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I knew the Holy Spirit was leading me and telling me to do. I didn't want to do that.

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And the problem with that was, is my mud and my muck got deeper and deeper.

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And it got worse and worse. And now it's like...

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And this is one of the things that I try with our younger adult women in the church.

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Is I try to tell them, I fought against God for a long time.

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And the sooner you realize that if you just stop fighting him and start listening to him, things go a lot smoother.

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And at first it's kind of... Because when you're in the mud and the muck a long time, he has to use a

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Brillo pad to get all that off. It's very depressing. It's painful. It is very painful.

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It's painful because that Brillo pad ain't real nice. But it's part of the cleansing and the reshaping that you have to go through to be the person that he originally wanted you to be had you not fought the whole time and became the person you thought you were supposed to be and listen to begin with.

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Does that make sense? Yes. Yes. Back to the tree. Let's add one more thing to it.

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The big trees in California, the redwoods, they have shallow roots.

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They have shallow roots. Really? The sequoia trees? The sequoia trees have shallow roots.

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Interesting. But because those roots intertwine, they last forever.

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They cause them to be grounded better. So that means we've got to be together with believers so that we can bear fruit with them and bear fruit in our lives so that we can bring people to Jesus so he can save them.

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Because all it does is make us stronger. It does. Every time I do this with one of the ladies from church or sometimes there's a man involved.

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We have a man on the show sometimes. So any of you guys that want to do this, it's fine.

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Anyways, so it always tends to make that bond a little stronger.

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Yeah. And that's one of the reasons when we started doing this, when Mercedes and I started doing this,

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I told her, I said, the only thing it can do is make us more united. It makes us stronger.

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It really does. So we can be those. Even if we're shallow, we can be tight -knit together.

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Yep. Miss Louise, I love you. I love you too.

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I love you so much. Man. You're one incredible, awesome lady.

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You know that? Only God. That's all

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I can say is only God. Yeah. That's the answer to everything.

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Have you ever lived through, now this is not on what we've been discussing because we're getting close to time, but just on a personal level, have you ever went through that time in your life?

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Because I don't know a lot about before you started coming to church with us.

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But did you ever go through that time in your life where you were like, you know what, I'm done with that? Talking about church and all that stuff.

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Have you ever been on that? Well, I was saved at 11 years of age when I was definitely saved and accepted

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Jesus at 11 years of age. And, okay, so I was at home on the farm, so I didn't get into any kind of mischief and stuff basically.

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Then I was saved at 11, and then I married 54 years.

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And so I guess some trials that I've had,

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I've had several trials. One, I wanted to be on the police force with the city of Memphis. No, I wanted to be a policewoman.

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But they didn't accept women in the academy back in the old days. Oh, so when they finally accepted women,

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I decided, my husband in fact said, Louise, why don't you become a police officer? And I said, honey, I am 27 years old.

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I've got two children. I'm too old. Anyway, I crammed two years of college into one year, and I said,

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Lord, if you want me to do this, I'll do it. If not, then I'll just, if it's okay,

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I'll just use that college to go ahead and get an education to teach. Okay, four more years, two more years.

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So I did that, got the college in, went to the academy, passed the academy.

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Two years after the academy, this guy runs a red light at Memphis State, now the

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University of Memphis. And I end up with a broken neck, two broken vertebrae.

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For two days, I'm looking over my shoulder in bed, and I can't bring my chin up, down.

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So for the next six months, I'm in traction daytime and sleeping in traction at night, collared.

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And after six months, I'm back out in a squad car. Six years later, second car wreck.

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No fault of our own. We had stopped for a person turning into a parking lot.

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The person behind us didn't stop. I ended up losing my, well,

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I ended up with quiplash, severe quiplash. My whole rib cage froze up on me.

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I lost my arm for two years and a half. This is the low time.

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I was thinking like, God, come on now. So for two years and a half,

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I had a headache every, 24 -7 headache. And I throw a headache once a day. But anyway, I know.

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Lost my right arm for two and a half years. All right. This gentleman that was walking around our block asked me why

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I, he had just moved in. He introduced himself and wanted to know why I was favoring my right arm.

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Make a short story, short, make a long story short. Thank you. He came back over after my husband came home.

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And he did three hours of brutal muscle work just on the shoulder blade.

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And I had to do three hours of stretching exercises every day for seven days.

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At the end of those seven days, I was pain -free, headache -free, and full range of motion.

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And all the doctors had given up on me. All the doctors and the chiropractors for two and a half years said, we can't help you.

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Well, look at that blessing. Oh, gosh, yeah. I'm saying every time there's a low spot, there's a big spot.

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So I then went into massage therapy and loved it. And then I had another accident.

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Not my fault again. This guy read a stop sign. Oh, no.

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And for one year. Staying at home. No more.

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For one year, I had to almost literally walk. And back to headaches and stuff.

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Oh, no. But I'm now 75 years old and very healthy. You are not 75 years old.

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Uh -huh. Uh -huh. Well, I do know your daughters. And I just thought about it.

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I was like, maybe you are. Yeah, I am. Wow. So, yeah, I've had some down times.

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But all the way through this, I never gave up on God. I never gave up on God.

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Can I ask you another personal question? Because I know there are people out there that are really, really struggling with some depression during this time of the year.

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Yes. And. I don't care.

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My book is open. I'm kind of scared now. I know it's heavy.

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Anyways. Go ahead. I do know that there are some women out there, and possibly even some men out there, that struggle during this time of the season.

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And most of the time it's because they've lost someone. Yes. Before we started this, you were reminding me that, well, what is next week?

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It's my anniversary of my husband passing away. December the 25th.

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One year. On Christmas. On Christmas Day. I remember that day,

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Mrs. Weeks, very well. What, if anything, can you give to somebody that may be struggling with the same memory?

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Memory. All right. I pick up the best memory of the whole thing. He just went to sleep.

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He did not. He stopped breathing. And I'll tell you funny on that one, that I remember, and it makes me feel good.

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My daughter, Teresa, it was her home, and they were cooking brunch in the next room.

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We were in the living room that had been made into a bedroom. So they were cooking breakfast, lunch, in the next room.

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And myself and Patricia, my other daughter, was sitting with James. And all of a sudden my daughter says,

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Mom, I don't think Daddy's breathing. So I checked. Sure enough, he's not. So we went into, and he had been ill with Parkinson's and dementia for about five years.

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Really severe the last two. So back up. So I went and got

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Teresa and said, Teresa, I think you need to come on in. So she being a physical therapist, make sure he's not breathing.

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And she started laughing. And I said, okay. And she says,

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Daddy, I know now why you went to heaven right now. It's because we're in there cooking and you haven't eaten for five days.

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And you're hungry. And you can't eat. So I know you went to heaven so you can have sausage and biscuits and ham and gravy.

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And so think of something positive about it. Because I know that he's in heaven.

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He is not hurting. He is with his family up there. And he's waiting for me.

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But we had 54 years. And it's okay. It's okay.

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What a story. What a story. I didn't know that was about to be told.

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Biscuits and gravy? I would probably pass, too. In there cooking biscuits and gravy knowing

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I can't eat. And Teresa was at? Teresa's house. I know now why he left us.

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He was hungry. So I told her, I said, that's what I'm going to remember.

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I love you. I love you, too. And I love my church members. My family.

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This is definitely family. Definitely family. Well, thank you so much.

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That just topped off. I was not expecting that.

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Were you expecting that? Were y 'all expecting that? Were you asked? I mean, that's true.

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That's not what I was expecting. I was like, I was getting ready to do a chair or something.

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I was thinking, this is going to be heart wrenching. Now it's biscuits and gravy. Well, anyways,

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I want to thank y 'all tonight for coming on and joining us for our Bible study. This has been a blast.

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I thank you so much for the prep that you did. I thank you so much for being truthful and honest with us.

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I also want to thank you, though, for sharing the memory with us. Well, you're welcome. Because that is one that I don't think

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I will ever, ever forget. Ever. Next week, we will not be having a wow moment, because next week is

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Christmas Eve. And we will be having, we have a

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Christmas Eve service here at the church. So, it's a little family time that we have together.

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So, we will not be on live. I might be able, no,

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I'm not even going to do that. We won't be on next week. I was going to say, I might have Andrew do one, but he's got a baby coming.

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So, with the baby coming, I don't think I'm going to put that on him. So, anyways, so just next week, y 'all enjoy your

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Christmas Eve. And please have a Merry Christmas. And we'll be back on New Year's Eve, though.

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We do have a guest for New Year's Eve. We'll be here New Year's Eve. So, I hope y 'all have a fantastic week.

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Thank you again. Aisha, thank you. Keep your tree planted by the river.

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Stay by the river. Keep your tree there. It's got to stay watered. Yes. And rooted.

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And roots. I'm glad you're part of my roots. Thanks for coming tonight, y 'all.

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Have a good week. Good night. Good night. You can walk in front of it.